Always on Sunday: Europe's official day of rest?

Members of the European Parliament, labor organizations and mainstream churchesunite to promote EU legislation that would make Sunday Europe's official day of rest.

by Paul Kieffer
March 25, 2010

The "Protect Sunday" conference was held at
the EU Parliament building in Brussels.

Some 30 years ago my wife I and had neighbors
with a son about the age of our young son. The husband worked
as an engineer for the German defense ministry and spent a year
with his wife and son in the United States on an assignment at
a U.S. military installation. One time in a conversation the
couple made an observation about life in the United States that
made me think. They said, "Life never slows down in America,
because you do not have a real weekly day of rest."

Their comment was based on retail sales on Sunday, since
shopping centers and stores are open for business on Sunday in
the United States. That confused and irritated them, since they
were not used to commercial activity on Sunday in their own
country, Germany.

There are many Europeans who have similar sentiments as our
former neighbors from Bonn. The new European Union Lisbon
treaty gives its citizens an unprecedented opportunity to
present their viewpoint straight to EU decision makers. The
Lisbon treaty took effect on December 1, 2009. One of its
provisions is the right for EU citizens to petition the
European Commission directly with a request for action on a
particular agenda item.

Article 11.4 of the new treaty says: "Not less than one
million citizens who are nationals of a significant number of
Member States may take the initiative of inviting the European
Commission, within the framework of its powers, to submit any
appropriate proposal on matters where citizens consider that a
legal act of the Union is required for the purpose of
implementing the Treaties."

In what might be the first petition to be submitted under
the provisions of the Lisbon treaty, concerned EU citizens are
collecting signatures for an initiative to have Sunday declared
the European Union's official day of rest. What began as a
small group meeting at the end of December 2009 has mushroomed
into a network of 72 different organizations, including 35
labor unions representing all EU member states and "all
relevant churches" in the EU, according to a spokesman for the
initiative.

Family and social concerns first

On websites like http://www.free-sunday.eu supporters of the
initiative emphasize first and foremost the social and labor
benefits of a work-free Sunday: "The work-free Sunday is an
essential pillar of the European Social Model and a part of the
European cultural heritage." A set day of the week provides
time for families to be together, for social interaction with
others in clubs and associations and even volunteer work for
social agencies. Another point emphasized in support of Sunday
is the fact that despite of various religious, cultural
and ethnic backgrounds within the EU, schools and public
institutions like government offices are not open on Sunday and
do not plan to be open on Sunday in the future.

Emphasizing social and labor benefits of a work-free Sunday
is in large part a reaction to a ruling made by the European
Court of Justice (ECJ) in November 1996 on an earlier EU
Council Directive (93/104/EC from November 23, 1993) regarding
"certain aspects of the organization of working time." The
Council Directive from 1993 declares in Article 5 concerning a
weekly work-free day: "Member States shall take the measures
necessary to ensure that, per each seven-day period, every
worker is entitled to a minimum uninterrupted rest period of 24
hours plus the 11 hours' daily rest referred to in Article 3.
The minimum rest period referred to in the first subparagraph
shall in principle include Sunday" (emphasis ours).

In its 1996 ruling, the European Court of Justice overturned
the "Sunday" provision of the directive. The Court found "that
the Council has failed to explain why Sunday, as a weekly rest
day, is more closely connected with the health and safety of
workers than any other day of the week." Supporters of the
current work-free Sunday proposal maintain that the 1996 ruling
does not rule out protection of Sunday as a work-free day.
Instead, the 1993 Directive did not provide sufficient reason
to explain why Sunday as a weekly rest day contributes more
than any other day of the week to the health and safety of
workers.

In the new century several studies have been done that
support a work-free Sunday as providing the greatest health
benefit for workers. The European Commission will look at those
studies as part of a new review of the working time
directive.

Forging an alliance for a work-free
Sunday

On March 24, 2010 a special plenary conference was held at
the seat of the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium to
promote forging an EU-wide alliance for a work-free Sunday. The
organizers of the conference were European Parliament member
Thomas Mann from Germany along with the German "Konrad Adenauer
Foundation." (The Konrad Adenauer Foundation is a German
research foundation linked with Germany's conservative
Christian Democratic Union party. The CDU traditionally
supports Catholic social and family policies.) 67 different
labor organizations and churches were listed as supporters of
the conference.

MEP Mann served as the moderator for the conference and
introduced the guest speakers, among them László
Andor, the new EU Commissioner for Employment and Social
Affairs, and Roman Catholic Bishop Dr. Ludwig Schwarz, who as a
professor was a faculty member for classical and Christian
literature at the Salesian Pontifical University in Rome from
1985 to 1999. Following the short presentations by each
speaker, questions and comments from the 400 conference
attendees were presented.

In his address EU Commissioner Andor emphasized the European
Commission's intent to re-examine the working time directive
and modify it as needed. In his words this issue is currently
the most important item on his agenda as the EU's new
Commissioner for Employment and Social affairs. Mr. Andor was
careful not to make any commitment concerning Sunday becoming
an EU-wide day of rest from work, but he welcomed input from
the conference, including the submission of research data on
the benefits of having a common day of rest for all of
Europe.

One consequence of the European Court of Justice's 1996
decision is that each EU member state decides whether it will
legally mandate a "work-free" day of the week. Sixteen of the
EU's 27 members have already provided legal protection for
Sunday as a "work-free" day. However, a conference participant
from the German city of Aachen highlighted the difficulties the
current situation causes with its national determination of a
"work-free" day. Aachen is located in one of Europe's "three
country corners" where the national borders of several
countries meet. Aachen is just a short drive from both Belgium
and the Netherlands.

Late last year Germany's Constitutional Court upheld a legal
challenge made by the Catholic and Lutheran churches to allow
"shopping Sundays," ruling on a clause in the German
constitution that Sunday should be a day of rest and "spiritual
elevation." The two churches sued the city of Berlin for its
liberal practice of permitting an increasing number of
"shopping Sundays." Germany's major labor unions also supported
the successful legal challenge. The city of Aachen, located in
a predominantly Catholic region, then banned "shopping Sundays"
for the year 2010. However, just a half hour drive from Aachen,
the Dutch city of Maastricht will have sixteen "shopping
Sundays" this year. The conference representative from Aachen
emphasized the need for EU uniformity on the issue.

A couple of speakers included brief references to minorities
who might want to have a different day of rest instead of
Sunday. When the Muslim community in the EU was mentioned,
conference moderator Thomas Mann responded by saying that the
emerging "work-free Sunday" alliance had friends from Turkey
– a predominantly Muslim country – who fully
support implementing Sunday as a "work-free" day. Two questions
from the floor also asked about the protection of religious
freedom for those who preferred to have a different day of the
week as their "work-free day." Those questions were not
answered by any of the panel speakers.

The March 24 meeting was the first in a series of
conferences on the initiative to be held at the European
Parliament in Brussels. At the end of March – just three
months after a small group had met to discuss the feasibility
of promoting an EU-wide "work-free" Sunday – 100,000
signatures had already been gathered in support of the
petition.

The "order of creation" and Sunday as a
weekly day of rest

In his written statement for the conference, Austrian Bishop
Schwarz emphasized the religious importance of Sunday. "The
churches are not just supporting making church attendance
possible on Sunday. They see the Bible's third commandment
– 'Thou shalt keep the day of the Lord holy' – as
being what it has always been: the determination of a period of
rest in harmony with the order of creation. That makes this
ancient commandment the first social legislation of society
formed by Jewish-Christian influence." [Comment: In
German-speaking areas the Sabbath commandment is counted as the
third commandment of the Ten Commandments.]

The majority of speakers at the "Protection of a work-free
Sunday" conference were representatives of labor unions and
organizations. However, even some of them referred to Europe's
religious heritage of Sunday as a day of rest, dating back 17
centuries to Roman emperor Constantine and the year 321 A.D. In
his opening remarks, conference organizer Thomas Mann included
the "spiritual aspect" of life as an important part of a weekly
day of rest, including attendance at worship services.

Comments made from the floor referred to Sunday as the
"seventh day of the week" and even as the "biblical seventh
day." However, at the end of creation week God did not rest on
the day called Sunday by today's world. Sunday is also not the
"biblical seventh day." A glance at almost any dictionary,
encyclopedia or calendar will show you that Saturday is the
seventh day of the week, while Sunday is the first day of the
week. According to God's calendar, the seventh day is –
and always has been – the Sabbath day. Although man has
modified calendars through the centuries, the seven-day weekly
cycle has remained intact throughout history. The days of the
week have always remained in their proper order, with Sunday as
the first day of the week and Saturday as the seventh.

Saturday as the seventh day of the week is easily proven by
the life of Jesus Christ. If Jesus would not have kept the
correct seventh day of the week, He would have sinned and would
not have able to be our saviour. However, shortly before His
death, Jesus said: "I have kept my Father's commandments" (John
15:10). Jesus kept the same day of the week as the Sabbath as
His fellow Jews. Although Jesus had disputes with the Jews
about how to keep the Sabbath, He was never accused of keeping
the wrong day. 2000 years ago Jesus kept the Sabbath on the
same day that God had instituted as a day of rest in Genesis
2.

No serious calendar authority will argue that the sequence
of the days of the week has been altered in the last 2000
years. That means that the Jews today keep the same day of the
week that Jesus did 2000 years ago: Saturday. That day –
from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset – is the only
correct "biblical seventh day". It is the only day that
reflects Jewish tradition regarding the Sabbath commandment,
Bishop Schwarz's comments notwithstanding.

So why do European church leaders and labor union
representatives say that Sunday is the Christian day of rest
and worship? The change from Sabbath to Sunday is not found
anywhere in the Bible. It was made long after the writing of
the New Testament. So how and when was the change made?

Initially Christianity was viewed as simply a sect of
Judaism. However, after Jewish revolts in Judea in A.D. 67-70
and 132-135, Jewish religious practices – many of which
continued in the early Church – came to be viewed with
hostility throughout the Roman Empire. Many among the Church
began to abandon these practices, including observance of the
biblical Sabbath and festivals.

No clear references to Sunday as a day of Christian worship
are found until the writings of Barnabas and Justin, around
A.D. 135 and 150, respectively. Observance of Sunday as the
primary day of worship appears to have begun to solidify during
the reign of Emperor Hadrian (A.D. 117-135), who harshly
persecuted Jews throughout the Roman Empire. Hadrian
specifically prohibited practices of Judaism, including
observance of the seventh-day Sabbath. These oppressive
measures apparently influenced many early Christians in Rome to
abandon the seventh day and turn to Sunday, the day for
honoring the sun god among the Romans and other peoples of the
ancient world. When Christianity was declared the official
religion of the Roman Empire in the fourth century, the process
accelerated.

Constantine's anti-Jewish prejudice

Roman Emperor Constantine, although a worshipper of the sun,
was the first emperor to profess belief in Christianity. But
the "Christianity" Constantine endorsed was already
considerably different from that practiced by Jesus and the
apostles. The emperor accelerated the change by his own hatred
of Jews and religious practices he considered Jewish.

For example, at the Council of Nicea (A.D. 325), church
authorities essentially banned the biblical Passover
observance. Endorsing this change, Constantine announced: "It
appeared an unworthy thing that . . . we should
follow the practice of the Jews, who have impiously defiled
their hands with enormous sin, and are, therefore, deservedly
afflicted with blindness of soul . . . Let us then
have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd"
(Eusebius, Life of Constantine 3, chapter 18, quoted in
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 1979, Vol. 1, pp.
524-525).

In a bid to unify his empire, he established the first laws
making Sunday the official day of rest. His A.D. 321 law, for
example, stated: "On the venerable Day of the Sun [Sunday] let
the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all
workshops be closed."

Several decades later, the Council of Laodicea decreed:
"Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but
must work on that day, rather honoring the Lord's Day [Sunday];
. . . But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let
them be anathema from Christ."

Within a few centuries observance of the biblical Sabbath
was driven underground within the confines of the empire, and
most who professed Christianity embraced Sunday. Although the
Protestant Reformation brought some changes, observance of
Sunday continued from the Roman Catholic Church into subsequent
Protestant denominations. But whereas the Catholic Church
claimed authority to establish its own times of worship,
Protestant churches generally justified Sunday observance on
the grounds that the seventh-day Sabbath was replaced in the
New Testament by worship on Sunday in honor of Christ's
resurrection. However, there is no biblical authority for
changing the day of rest and worship from the seventh day to
Sunday.

The end may be different than the
beginning

All speakers at the March 24th "Protection of a work-free
Sunday" conference in Brussels lauded the effort to provide
workers in Europe a legally protected weekly day of rest. Even
those conference attendees who voiced concerns about minority
rights voiced appreciation for the concept of a "work-free" day
of the week.

As already noted, the main emphasis of the current
initiative is on the social and labor benefits of a work-free
Sunday. However, circumstances change over time, and what may
not be as important now may become predominant in future
years.

There is an interesting prophecy in Revelation 13 where two
beasts are depicted. One of them is able "to make war with the
saints and to overcome them" (Revelation 13:7), and the other
masquerades "like a lamb," but in reality speaks "like a
dragon" (verse 11). This second beast performs miracles (verses
13 and 14), and he "exercises all the authority of the first
beast" (verse 12). The second beast of Revelation 13 is a
religious power, since it appears like a lamb and works
miracles, although in reality it speaks like its actual source,
Satan!

The second beast of Revelation 13 uses the power of the
first beast of that chapter to force people to worship the
first beast (Revelation 13:12). In addition to forcing people
to worship the first beast of Revelation 13, the second beast
enforces a sign on the people who refuse to worship the first
beast: "He [the second beast] causes all, both small and great,
rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right
hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell
except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the
number of his name" (Revelation 13:16-17).

The language used – "right hand" [actions or behavior]
and "forehead" [mind, thoughts] – is identical to the
description God gave His people Israel in the Old Testament to
describe what His law should be to them (Exodus 13:9;
Deuteronomy 6:8).

The mark of the Beast is evidently a mark of disobedience to
God. Of all the points of God's spiritual law, the Ten
Commandments, the one that is questioned or ignored most
frequently is the commandment involving the Sabbath, which God
intended to be a special sign for His people (Exodus 31:13). In
fact, the Sabbath can be viewed as a test of a person's
willingness to be totally subject to God's will for
Christians.

Many Bible students see the mark of the Beast as
countermanding God's Sabbath. They believe that forced
observance of Sunday – a day originally dedicated to the
worship of the sun as a god instead of the observance of the
seventh-day Sabbath – may be involved. This view is
strengthened by the fact that other prophecies in the book of
Revelation show a great counterfeit religious figure and system
at the time of the end. This system will be centered in Europe
and will play a major role in leading people away from the true
God.

Without accompanying legal protection for religious
minorities in Europe, a successful initiative to declare Sunday
as the European Union's official "work-free" day would have
serious implications for those EU citizens who want to keep the
true biblical seventh day of the week, God's holy Sabbath
day.

Developments in Europe will surprise a world unaware of
what the Bible has to say about the time leading up to the
prophesied return of Jesus Christ. However, you don’t
have to remain uninformed. I recommend the free booklets
You Can Understand Bible
Prophecy and The Book of Revelation
Unveiled, both available free of charge upon
request.